The Content Hub: There is a dearth of comedy writers in television, say experts

The Comedy Fix session at Indiantelevision.com's The Content Hub saw tempers flaring at one point all for good reasons of course. The point of discussion was whether quality comedy writing is waning on television and speaking on the topic were the animated Tanmay Bhatt (All India Bakchod), Vipul Shah (Comedy Circus) and Asit Modi (Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah). Moderating the session was Indiantelevision.com's Chairman Anil Wanvari who had to step in for Gaurav Gera who dropped out at the eleventh hour owing to some personal emergency. Tanmay held for with his loud passionate voice and punch worthy anecdotes. The comedian remembered his early college days when a stand up act at Malhar festival fetched him his first professional TV assignment. Tanmay who has written scripts for television shows, award functions and events said that there is a dearth of talent in comedy writing, a point supported by Asit Modi and Vipul Shah. "There is no space for new writers. Also in India, it's family humour that works. Youth oriented comedy will not find much takers," said Asit. Vipul, on his part reasoned, " A show like FRIENDS or Big Bang Theory will be difficult to make here in India. It's family humour that works here." The troika however agreed that humour has been getting a lot more respect today as compared to earlier days. While definitely the scarcity of good writers has hit the comedy content of television, Tanmay feels the same can be remedied by grooming budding writers right from college. "Such a system should exist in India where writers and their skills are developed. You will find the same in America.' A heated debate also ensued between Tanmay and Vipul over plagiarism involving SMS jokes. Tanmay put his foot down over the usage of any internet or SMS jokes and passing them as your own while Vipul strongly opined that as long as the creator of the joke remains unknown anyone can use it. An infuriated Tanmay cited examples of top bracket stars including SRK preferring SMS jokes over original stuff. All in all, session Comedy Fix audience transfixed to their seats at The Content Hub.